Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard in the Scriptures the prayers and the wishes of those who have done the will of God and been faithful to the end. St. Paul was meeting the elders, the bishops and priests of the Church in Ephesus as a farewell to them, because he knew that afterwards he would never see them again, as he was going to his eventual martyrdom in Rome.

In the Gospel today, Jesus our Lord spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, where He spoke to them about many things at the culmination of His earthly ministry. He prayed to God the Father to bless and strengthen His disciples through the difficult times that was to come, so that they might persevere through those challenging times.

Both St. Paul and Jesus our Lord had completed the respective works which they were given by the Lord, that is to give the people of God the truth and the revelation of the truth of God’s mysteries, and to reveal to them the nature of God’s love and mercy for mankind. They were then going to their end, the end of their earthly lives, having completed what they were supposed to do, faithful to the end and their rewards would be great.

They showed us all the attitudes which we as the disciples and followers of our Lord should have in our lives. We should first put our complete trust in the Lord, and believe in the providence and help which He will give to us and bless us with. We must remember that He will not abandon us in our time of great need, and He will always guard us and protect us as long as we keep our faith in Him.

He will not abandon us to the darkness and to the devil, but we must also realise that the path of being faithful to Him will not be an easy one, just as St. Paul himself had demonstrated, together with the other Apostles, disciples and martyrs of the Church who have encountered those challenges and difficulties in living their lives faithfully and against the forces of the world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, challenges and obstacles are part and parcel of our lives as Christians, primarily because the ways of this world, as we all should now, are not in accordance to the ways of the Lord, and very often, they would come into conflict against each other. And thus, the world will indeed persecute the faithful people of God, just as they had done in the ages past.

It will not be easy indeed, brethren, many of those who have preceded us lived their lives in difficulty, persevering through the challenges, some were imprisoned, some were tortured and in pain, and some even lost their lives for the sake of the Lord. And yet, these had gone to their heavenly reward, receiving the glory of God and the eternal life promised to them, while those who compromised their faith and submitted to the world had also gone to their just reward, that is eternal suffering and damnation in hell.

We should all realise that for us all, it is now up to us to live our lives, and how we should act and do things in this life, so that we can be either faithful or faithless to God. Let us just ask ourselves this one question, what do we want to see in our own respective lives, if at the very end of our earthly lives, we are able to look back at our every single actions and deeds? What do we want to see, brethren? Do we want to see a life filled with justice and good deeds, worthy of the Lord? Or do we rather see a life of wickedness and evil, and unworthy of the Lord?

The choice is ours brethren, and let us all pray as St. Paul had done, that we may be given the strength and the grace to live our lives filled with faith and with confidence, knowing that if we are faithful to God’s ways, we shall never be disappointed and receive the eternal glory and life promised to all of us. Lord, our God and Father, remain with us always. Amen.